Student who revealed CD copying secret could be sued

Damn, going to sue someone because he just found out that holding the shift key overcomes the copyprotection?

Didnt know it was against the law to find out just how ineffective copy protection is....

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Three days after a Princeton graduate student posted a paper on his Web site detailing how to defeat the copy-protection software on a new music CD by pressing a single computer key, the maker of the software said Thursday it would sue him.

In a statement, SunnComm Technologies Inc. said it would sue Alex Halderman over the paper, which said SunnComm's MediaMax CD-3 software could be blocked by holding down the "Shift" key on a computer keyboard as a CD using the software was inserted into a disc drive.

"SunnComm believes that by making erroneous assumptions in putting together his critical review of the MediaMax CD-3 technology, Halderman came to false conclusions concerning the robustness and efficacy of SunnComm's MediaMax technology," it said.

www.cnn.com...

I read earlier on CNN that SunComm would not be suing him, a good attitude from a media giant like them as it was a windows flaw widely known to..well...anyone all he did was write a paper on the stupidity of it all and how they had failed.

Very simple really, the Shift button stops the cd from loading drivers, the drivers dont work on macs or linux so basically they're ineffective if you dont play the cd, ripping it is fine though

If a copy protection scheme can be circumvented just by pressing shift then its the company that is at fault, not the kid for finding out about it.

"could" has been changed to "is being"

"Student sued over CD piracy study"
Link:
news.bbc.co.uk...

Excerpt:

"A US student is being sued for showing how to get around anti-piracy technology on a new music CD.
Princeton graduate John Halderman published a paper online showing how to defeat the copy-protection software by pressing a single computer key.

This has angered the company behind the software, SunnComm Technologies, which is now planning to sue him.

It is just one of the firms working on ways to make it harder to copy and trade music over the internet."


Personally, as many well know, why should the student be sued when currently, Microsoft has available a program called Tweak UI that virtually gives the ability to turn of 'autorun'? He is getting sued for mentioning: "hold shift key"......dumb# stuff here.....lawyers and their damn "legalities" are going to ruin, if not already, the legal system.


regards
seekerof

Well thats weird, i read he wasn't being sued, i'm pretty sure someone will pay the legal fee's though, tech companies or tech tv generally like to pay the guys way because of stupid windows errors.

the shift key blocks Autoload, which is a little MS script that tells windows to load whatever program is listed.

For example. Autoload would tell windows to load a script to crash a computer. Autoload=crashwindows.exe

This only works on windows. COugh cough so there are two hacks. COugh cough get linux.

UPDATE

"Suit threats over Princeton CD paper dropped"
Link:
www.chron.com...

Excerpt:

"LOS ANGELES - A software company, citing academic freedom, has backed away from a threat to sue a Princeton student who published details on how to thwart its CD copy-protection technology.


Peter Jacobs, the chief executive of SunnComm Technologies Inc. , told Reuters today the company disputed the conclusion by Princeton student Alex Halderman that its software was "irreparably flawed," but would not pursue the matter because it did not want to chill academic research.


Halderman, who is working on a doctorate in computer science, posted a paper on his Web site earlier this week detailing the ways SunnComm's MediaMax software could be defeated. These included simply holding down the "Shift" key on a keyboard, while loading the disc in to a CD drive.


SunnComm did not contest that finding, but earlier said the paper cost the company more than $10 million in market capitalization."


Can anyone says "Oopppsss, we screwed up" SunnComm sucks and screwed up!


regards
seekerof